UN has a role to play

April 11 2003By Richard Cohen

Sometimes, a picture really is worth a thousand words. The picture I have in mind is the stirring one seen on TV when US soldiers draped an American flag over the face of Saddam Hussein's massive statue in Baghdad's Firdos Square.

It made me - an American - feel good. But not the crowd in Baghdad. It went sullen. When Old Glory was taken down a moment later and an Iraqi flag was substituted for it, the crowd erupted in cheers. This, alas, was truly reality TV.

In some respects, the scene was similar to ones that occurred all over Eastern Europe in 1989. Back then, communist regimes crumpled, the stone likenesses of petty dictators swiftly followed and pro-American democracies rose from the rubble. History, however, is not repeating itself now. It's merely making a photo op.

The trap would be to think that the jubilant Iraqis of today will be the Iraqis of tomorrow. Unlike the people of Eastern Europe, who loathed communism and admired the United States, it's likely most Iraqis loathed Saddam but have no particular fondness for the US. Among other things, America has been bombing their cities and killing their soldiers for the past three weeks.

The US is once again in a part of the world that is not Christian and not Western and not particularly enamoured of America's values. Americans have been welcomed in such parts of the world before - Lebanon, Somalia - and then sent packing when elements of the local population turned homicidal. This could happen in Iraq as well.");document.write("

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Dick Cheney, of all people, recognised the dangers back in 1991. In defending the first Bush administration's appalling decision to end the Gulf War and leave Saddam in power, Cheney turned his attention to what would have happened if coalition forces had entered Baghdad.

"Once you've got Baghdad, it's not clear what you do with it," Cheney said. "It's not clear what kind of government you put in place. Is it going to be a Shiite regime, a Sunni regime or a Kurdish regime? . . . How much credibility is that government going to have if it's set up by US military when it's there?"

Cheney's rationalisations for inaction then are pertinent to what's happening now. If, in fact, there was a time for America to be - or at least pretend to be - truly humble, it is now. It could save lives.

Clearly, the near-term administration of Iraq has to be done by the US and its military - certainly not by the United Nations. But the UN haters in the Bush Administration ought to realise there are some things the world body knows how to do. Along with non-government organisations, it knows how to distribute humanitarian aid.

The UN is also pretty good at organising and administering elections. It should do so in Iraq. The results will have legitimacy and will be more likely to be accepted in the Muslim world. The UN or one of its affiliated agencies should be used to verify the existence of weapons of mass destruction. No one more than 10 kilometres from the White House is going to accept an announcement by Donald Rumsfeld that the so-called smoking gun has been found. Have the UN announce it.

Finally, as satisfying as it might be, neither France nor Germany should be shunned or punished for what, after all, was disgraceful behaviour.

France remains a permanent member of the Security Council, and only the Security Council can lift the sanctions imposed on Iraq. Better to enlist France to help in postwar Iraq than to roll over it, no matter how gratifying that might be.

Images are all-powerful in today's world. Flags are raised in homage to the powerful photo from Iwo Jima. Statues are toppled as they were in squares all over Eastern Europe.

But to these images must be added a third one - the mute reaction to the American flag in Firdos Square. For that moment, Saddam Hussein and the crowd had something in common: Both their faces were of stone.